Man arrested over deadly Osaka fire 'wanted to kill anyone'

OSAKA -- A man turned himself in to police Monday, claiming responsibility for a blaze at a pachinko parlor in Osaka that killed four people and telling police he wanted to kill "anyone."

The man, Sunao Takami, 41, turned himself in at Iwakuni Police Station in Yamaguchi Prefecture on Monday saying, "I did it." Police immediately arrested him on suspicion of arson of an inhabited structure, murder and attempted murder.

When questioned by police, Takami told them he was "sick of life" and that he owed some money to consumer finance organizations.

"I had no job or money, and I was sick of life. I thought I wanted to kill anyone, like a random killer, and I set fire to a place where there were a lot of people," police quoted him as saying. Investigators are continuing to question Takami over the detailed motives for starting the deadly blaze.

Takami is accused of entering the pachinko parlor in Osaka's Konohana Ward through the parlor's southeast entrance at about 4:10 p.m. on Sunday, and splashing a bucket of gasoline across the floor and setting it alight before escaping through the southwest entrance.

"I put some gasoline in a portable can and took it into the store, then poured it into a bucket and set it alight with a match," Takami was quoted as telling police.

The store's security camera showed a man splashing about a liquid, and police had been searching for the perpetrator. After the arson attack, Takami returned to his home in Konohana Ward and then took a JR train to Okayama, and stayed overnight at a business hotel near Okayama Station. On Monday morning he headed to Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture. He turned himself in to police at about 12:40 p.m.

Takami told police that he had parked his bicycle behind the pachinko parlor. They found his bicycle there, and because his clothing matched that of the perpetrator in the video, they arrested him.

Takami had lived alone, and at the time of his arrest he was carrying around 60,000 yen. He said he had not played pachinko on the day of the fire, but told police that he had been to the establishment several times in the past.